2. Ancient Sounds: mixing acoustic phonetics, statistics and comparative philology to bring speech back from the past Investigator: John ColemanProject Partner: John Aston Phonetics LaboratoryStatistics Laboratory University of Oxford University of Cambridge @sounds_ancient Coleman supported by an AHRC Science in Culture Innovation Award

3. What would comparative and historical phonology be like if we worked with sounds instead of symbols? Can interesting statistical or signal processing methods give insights into language? Could we bring back to life the sounds of dead languages?

4. Phylogenetic phonetics After Schleicher (1860) Deutsche Sprache, and Aston, Buck, Coleman, Cotter, Jones, Macaulay, MacLeod, Moriarty, and Nevins (2011) Phylogenetic inference for function- valued traits: speech sound evolution. doi: 10.1016/j.tree.2011.10.001

5. Phylogenetic phonetics

7. Latin ItalianSpanishPortugueseFrench 1[ ˈ u:nu-s/m][ ˈ u:no] [ũ(ŋ)][œ̃], [ ɛ ̃] 2[ ˈ duo][ ˈ du:e][dos][dois], [doi ʃ ][dø][dø] 3[tre:s][tre:][tres][tres], [tre ʃ ][t ʀ wa] 4[ ˈ kwatwor][ ˈ kwat:ro][ ˈ kwatro][ ˈ kwatru][katʀ][katʀ] 5[ ˈ kwi:ŋkwe][ ˈ t ʃ iŋkwe][ ˈ si:ŋko], [ ˈ θi:ŋko][ ˈ sı̃ŋku][sɛ̃k][sɛ̃k] 6[seks][sɛi][sɛi][seis][s ɐ ĭs], [s ɐ ĭ ʃ ][sis][sis] 7[ ˈ septem][ˈsɛt:e][ˈsɛt:e][ ˈ sjete][ˈsɛti][ˈsɛti][sɛt][sɛt] 8[ ˈ okto][ ˈ ot:o][ ˈ ot ʃ o][ˈoĭtu][ˈoĭtu][ɥit][ɥit] 9[ ˈ novem][ ˈ n ɔ ve][ ˈ nweve][ˈnɔvɨ][ˈnɔvɨ][nœf] 10[ ˈ dekem][ˈdjɛtʃi][ˈdjɛtʃi][ ˈ dj ɛ s], [ ˈ dj ɛ θ][ ˈ d ɛʃ ][dis] Regular similarities ⇒ Shared ancestry Dissimilarities ⇒ Historical divergence

8. Latin ItalianSpanishPortugueseFrench 1[ ˈ u:nu-s/m][ ˈ u:no] [ũ(ŋ)][œ̃], [ ɛ ̃] 2[ ˈ duo][ ˈ du:e][dos][dois], [doi ʃ ][dø][dø] 3[tre:s][tre:][tres][tres], [tre ʃ ][t ʀ wa] 4[ ˈ kwatwor][ ˈ kwat:ro][ ˈ kwatro][ ˈ kwatru][katʀ][katʀ] 5[ ˈ kwi:ŋkwe][ ˈ t ʃ iŋkwe][ ˈ si:ŋko], [ ˈ θi:ŋko][ ˈ sı̃ŋku][sɛ̃k][sɛ̃k] 6[seks][sɛi][sɛi][seis][s ɐ ĭs], [s ɐ ĭ ʃ ][sis][sis] 7[ ˈ septem][ˈsɛt:e][ˈsɛt:e][ ˈ sjete][ˈsɛti][ˈsɛti][sɛt][sɛt] 8[ ˈ okto][ ˈ ot:o][ ˈ ot ʃ o][ˈoĭtu][ˈoĭtu][ɥit][ɥit] 9[ ˈ novem][ ˈ n ɔ ve][ ˈ nweve][ˈnɔvɨ][ˈnɔvɨ][nœf] 10[ ˈ dekem][ˈdjɛtʃi][ˈdjɛtʃi][ ˈ dj ɛ s], [ ˈ dj ɛ θ][ ˈ d ɛʃ ][dis] But these are not sounds!

9. Latin ItalianSpanishPortugueseFrench 1 [ ˈ u:nu- s/m] [ ˈ u:no] [ũ(ŋ)][ö] [ ɛ ̃] 2 [ ˈ duo][ ˈ du:e][dos] [dois], [doi ʃ ] [dø][dø] 3 [tre:s][tre:][tres] [tres], [tre ʃ ] [t ʀ wa] 4 [ ˈ kwatwor] [ ˈ kwat:ro ] [ ˈ kwatro][ ˈ kwatru][katʀ][katʀ] 5 [ ˈ kwi:ŋkwe][ ˈ t ʃ iŋkwe] [ ˈ si:ŋko], [ ˈ θi:ŋko] [ ˈ sı̃ŋku][sɛ̃k][sɛ̃k] 6 [seks][sɛi][sɛi][seis][s ɐ ĭs], [s ɐ ĭ ʃ ][sis][sis] 7 [ ˈ septem][ˈsɛt:e][ˈsɛt:e][ ˈ sjete][ˈsɛti][ˈsɛti][sɛt][sɛt] 8 [ ˈ okto][ ˈ ot:o][ ˈ ot ʃ o][ˈoĭtu][ˈoĭtu][ɥit][ɥit] 9 [ ˈ novem][ ˈ n ɔ ve][ ˈ nweve][ˈnɔvɨ][ˈnɔvɨ][nöf][nöf] 10[ ˈ dekem][ˈdjɛtʃi][ˈdjɛtʃi][ ˈ dj ɛ s], [ ˈ dj ɛ θ][ ˈ d ɛʃ ][dis] But these are not sounds!

10. [un- o ] [ũ][ũ] LPC spectrogram LPC spectrogram 1 Sound change continuum: nasalization in un-us, -um LPC spectrogram Interpolated LPC spectrograms LPC spectrogram 2 GENERATION OF SYNTHETIC SPEECH D Moore, J Coleman Eur. Patent 1,504,443

11. [ũ][ũ] LPC spectrogram LPC spectrogram 1 Sound change continuum: nasal vowel lowering LPC spectrogram [œ̃̃] LPC spectrogram Interpolated LPC spectrograms LPC spectrogram 2 [ɛ̃][ɛ̃]

12. Objectives for 2015 (this award) “Triangulation backwards”: to reconstruct (audible) acoustic examples of the likely ancestors of words in: Romance (from Latin), Germanic, and Greek Develop techniques to overcome obstacles besetting these methods Presentations, publications and a workshop on the new methods To lay foundations for an “attack” on other branches: Celtic, Slavonic, Indo-Aryan